Thunder Look For Revenge Against Grizzlies

In one of the rare home games in the month of January, the Thunder (23-16) is back in action tonight at 7 p.m. when it hosts the Memphis Grizzlies (24-16).

Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup:

Thunder streaking again

After dropping three close games to open the New Year, the Thunder has been on fire as of late with two consecutive double-digit wins over the Nuggets and Bulls.

Russell Westbrook nearly recorded a triple-double in both games, but the superstar point guard came up one rebound short against Chicago before checking out early with the game out of hand.

While any win is valuable in the NBA, beating a proven team like the Grizzlies on Wednesday would be OKC’s biggest victory of 2017.

Revenge game

The Thunder and Grizzlies have a heated history which dates back to the 2011 playoffs, but things got a little bit more intense after Memphis’ 114-80 win over OKC back on Dec. 29.   

With the Grizzlies already up 17 points entering the fourth quarter, Memphis went on to shoot one 3-pointer after another as Troy Daniels and company outscored the Thunder 36-to-19 in the frame. While most OKC starters were out of the ballgame at that point, it doesn’t mean they weren’t paying attention.

“At the end of that game, I felt like we got disrespected in a way,” Andre Roberson told the media on Tuesday. “Them launching 3s at the end, I didn’t take that too kindly. And we remember that. We bring it up on film and we’ll come out tomorrow aggressive and try to get after them.”

It didn’t help the Thunder’s chances in the game that Westbrook was ejected in the second quarter, but Westbrook says he agrees with Roberson.

“I was in the shower, I wasn’t watching the rest of that damn game,” Westbrook said. “I was in the shower but I’ve definitely seen the film and I’m with Dre, if Dre feels disrespected I feel disrespected right along with him.”

It’s never a good idea to make Westbrook mad, but we’ll see on Wednesday night how he channels that anger.

Huge game for playoff positioning

As of right now, the Grizzles currently sit in the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings while the Thunder are only half a game back at the No. 7 seed.

While the standings don’t mean to much at this point in the season, these head-to-head matchups could end up mattering at the end of the season if both OKC and Memphis finish with the same exact record. The Thunder fell on the wrong side of the tie-breaker two seasons ago when it lost the tie breaker to the Pelicans and was on the outside looking in of the playoff picture. 

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